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1. Contact
Information
2. Professional
Information
3. Published
Books
4. Selective
List of Academic Publications and Chapters in Books
5. Current
Courses
6. Current
Projects
7. Journalism
and Non-Academic Writings
Contact Information
Stephen Harold Riggins
NEWFOUNDLAND Office Address:
Memorial University of
Newfoundland
Department of Sociology
St. John’s,
Newfoundland
Canada A1C 5S7
Office Telephone: 709 - 737 - 4465
Office Fax: 709 -
737 - 2075
ONTARIO Mailing Address:
402-477 Richmond Street West,
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M5V 3E7
Toronto Telephone: 416 - 364 - 5514
Toronto Fax: 416 -
364 - 5529
E-mail: sriggins@mun.ca
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Professional Information
Since 1990 I have taught at Memorial
University where I am currently a full Professor and department Head. I have
previously taught at the University of Alberta in Edmonton,
the University of Toronto, and Laurentian University in
Sudbury, Ontario. My undergraduate degree as well as my
master’s degree are from Indiana University in Bloomington. In
1980 I was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. My
thesis titled Institutional Change in Nineteenth-Century
French Music (Microfiche: ISBN 0-315-05253-8. Canadian Thesis:
53147) was an attempt to create a musical equivalent of
Harrison White and Cynthia White’s social history of French
painting, Canvases and Careers.
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Published Books
- The Pleasures of Time: Two Men, A Life (Toronto, ON:
Insomniac Press, 2003). 310 pp. [Review]
- The Language and Politics of Exclusion: Others in
Discourse (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1997). 294 pp. [Review]
- The Socialness of Things: Essays on the Socio-semiotics
of Objects (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1994). 482 pp [Review]
- Ethnic Minority Media: An International Perspective
(Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1992). 298 pp. [Review]
- Beyond Goffman: Studies on Communication,
Institution and Social Interaction (Berlin: Mouton de
Gruyter, 1990). 456 pp.
[Review]
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Selective List of Academic Publications and
Chapters in Books
- Review of Valerie Alia's Un/Covering the
North: News, Media, and Aboriginal People. In The Canadian
Journal of Sociology, Vol. 26 (2), Spring 2001, pp.
233-235.
- “Critical Representations,” Semiotic Review
of Books, September 1999, 10 (3), pp. 3-5.
- “The Rhetoric of Othering.” In S. H.
Riggins (Ed.), The Language and Politics of Exclusion:
Others in Discourse. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1997, pp.
1-30.
- “Fieldwork in the Living Room: An
Autoethnographic Essay.” In S. H. Riggins (Ed.), The
Socialness of Things: Essays on the Socio-Semiotics of
Objects. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1994, pp. 101-147.
- “Life as a Metaphor: Current Issues in
Dramaturgical Analysis,” Semiotica, 95 (1 & 2), 1993,
pp. 153-165.
- “Inadvertent Assimilationism in the
Canadian Native Press.” In S. H. Riggins (Ed.), Ethnic
Minority Media: An International Perspective. Newbury Park,
CA: Sage, 1992, pp. 102-126.
- “If Work Made People Rich: An Oral History
of General Farming, 1905-1925.” Midwestern Folklore, 17 (2),
1991, pp. 73-109.
- “The Power of Things: The Role of Domestic
Objects in the Presentation of Self.” In S. H. Riggins
(Ed.), Beyond Goffman: Studies on Communication,
Institution, and Social Interaction. Berlin: Mouton de
Gruyter, 1990, pp. 341-367.
- “News as Texts and Actions,” Semiotica, 78
(3 & 4), 1990, pp. 359-374.
- “The Spirit of Commerce in the Journalism
of Carlos McCarty,” Indiana Magazine of History, LXXXIV (3),
1988, pp. 262-281.
- “Democratizing the Arts: France in an Era
of Austerity,” Queen’s Quarterly, 92 (1), 1986, pp. 149-161.
(With Khoa Pham).
- “The Semiotics of Things: Towards a
Sociology of Human-Object Interaction,” Recherches
Sémiotiques / Semiotic Inquiry (RS/SI), V, 1985, pp. 69-77.
- “Institutional Change in Nineteenth-Century
French Music,” Current Perspectives in Social Theory, 1985,
pp. 243-260.
- “Michel Foucault: An Interview,” Ethos, 1
(2), 1983, pp. 4-9. Reprinted as “The Minimalist Self.” In
Lawrence Kritzman (Ed.), Politics, Philosophy, Culture:
Interviews and Other Writings of Michel Foucault, 1977-1984.
New York: Methuen, 1988, pp. 3-16. French translation: In
Michel Foucault, Dits et écrits, 1954-1988. Vol. IV. Paris:
Gallimard, 1994, pp. 525-538.
- Native North Americans and the Media:
Studies in Minority Journalism. Special issue of the journal
Anthropologica edited by S. H. Riggins, XXV (1), 1983.
Includes the article “The Organizational Structure of the
Toronto Native Times (1968-1981),” pp. 37-52
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Current Courses
- Sociology 4106. Mass Media and Public
Opinion
Sociologists and journalists have much
in common professionally, although in public we often prefer
to emphasize our differences. Several well-known
sociologists worked as journalists; some of the methods for
acquiring information are relatively similar, for example,
participant observation and investigative journalism. The
predominant perspective in both professions is a commitment
to writing objective, value-free literature. However,
sociologists and journalists work in very different
organizational settings and sociologists attempt to arrive
at more general and systematic kinds of knowledge. The
similarity in occupational perspectives and the crucial
impact of journalists in the shaping of public opinion make
the mass media a challenging object of study for
sociologists.
This course provides an introduction
to the varied theoretical approaches which have
characterized the sociological investigation of the mass
media. The instructor will attempt to present these
perspective in a non-judgmental manner considering both
their theoretical advantages and weaknesses. Students will
be encouraged to learn to assess their own responses to
media content as a first step in acquiring a critical
understanding of how the media influence public opinion.
Thus an important component of this course, one which
accounts for one-third of the final grade, is a series of
structured exercises in which students are required to
analyze in class the content of various genres of mass
media. The concepts used in analyses will be explained in
lectures and students will be given case studies of each
genre. However, the particular examples chosen for the
quizzes will not be distributed prior to the exam date.
Genres studied in these quizzes include print
advertisements, narratives (short stories or fairy tales),
television news, and rock videos. The themes of these
exercises -- discourses of gender, environmentalism,
and Otherness -- are common ones in the media and lend
themselves to analyses without requiring a specialized
knowledge of their subject matter. A few lectures will also
deal with the work environment of professional journalists.
This is a course in both sociology and
cultural studies. Sociology is understood in the context of
this class as the more humanistic and qualitative types of
social theory such as symbolic interactionism. Cultural
studies might be defined as an intellectual and political
tradition that concentrates on the meaning and social
significance conveyed through “texts,” broadly defined to
include films and conversations as well as sophisticated
literature and popular mass media. Cultural studies
resembles to some extent such apparently different
theoretical frameworks as symbolic interactionism and
Marxism. In both cultural studies and symbolic
interactionism scholars examine how meaning is produced
through the formal structures of language and symbols; in
both perspectives sociologists are interested in individual
and group representation. But cultural studies tends to be
more political in nature — explicitly promoting
inclusiveness and tolerance — than is characteristic of more
scientific types of social theory.
Films used in this course include the
following. From China and Taiwan: Pushing Hands, Eat Drink
Man Woman, Shower, and The True Hearted. From Japan:
Rhapsody in August and Shall We Dance?. From Vietnam: The
Scent of Green Papaya. From India: Salaam Bombay! and The
Home and the World. From France Delicatessen and Indochine.
From Italy: Cinema Paradiso. From Denmark: Babette's Feast.
From Australia Strictly Ballroom. The American Native film,
Smoke Signals.
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- Sociology 3180. Minority Groups
The formation of a group identity
requires the public articulation of discourses of similarity
and difference. Embracing certain identities seems to
require explicitly rejecting other identities. The term
“Others” thus refers to groups which are perceived — for
whatever reason — as mildly or radically different. The
discourses of similarity and difference which are
highlighted in this course are those that define ethnicity
and race.
Ethnicity is a sense of community that
arises as a result of perceived common ancestry, culture,
language, history, religion or customs. Ethnic identity is a
dynamic process that includes an individual’s choice to
identify with a group as well as outsiders’ reactions to
that group. Especially in a modern society characterized by
satellite broadcasting, tourism, inter-racial marriage, and
mass migration, ethnic identity is a fragile, fluctuating,
and negotiated identity. It is only in part determined by
birth or by physical characteristics.
This is a course in both sociology and
cultural studies. Sociology is understood in the context of
this class as the more humanistic types of social theory
such as symbolic interactionism. Cultural studies might be
conceptualized as an intellectual and political tradition
that concentrates on the meaning and social significance
conveyed through “texts,” broadly defined to include films
and conversations as well as sophisticated literature and
popular mass media. Cultural studies resembles to some
extent such apparently different theoretical perspectives as
symbolic interactionism and Marxism. In both cultural
studies and symbolic interactionism scholars examine how
meaning is produced through the formal structures of
language and symbols; in both perspectives sociologists are
interested in individual and group representation. On the
other hand, cultural studies, like Marxism, tends to be more
political in nature — explicitly promoting inclusiveness and
tolerance — than is characteristic of more scientific types
of social theory.
Chinese-Canadians are the
largest “visible minority” in Canada. Most have arrived
since the 1960s, although the community can be traced back
to the 1850s. Thus several readings and lectures in this
course deal with the historic and contemporary experiences
of Chinese minorities in North America and Asia. This part
of the course includes readings and lectures about Taoism
and Buddhism, traditional sources of social values in China.
It should also be emphasized that the experiences of a wide
diversity of minority groups are discussed in readings and
lectures in the early and concluding weeks of the term.
Attendance in requires at one Wild
Goose Qigong class and one Taoist Tai Chi class, which will
be offered during regular class hours. Students are required
to see outside class one film in Chinese (with English
subtitles) about the experiences of Chinese immigrants in
North America.
Requirements include an essay (worth
25% of the final grade), which is a critical discourse
analysis of ONE newspaper article on ethnic minority
relations. The newspaper article will be chosen by the
instructor from either The Globe and Mail or The New York
Times.
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- Sociology / Anthropology 2270. Families
This course has been
organized as a wide-ranging introduction to the sociology of
families. The study of families was a rather stodgy
specialty in sociology until it was gradually transformed
over the past thirty years by the women’s movement, which
highlighted the political nature of many features of
personal life. The influence of the women’s movement will be
taken into account in this course without renouncing the
ideal of objectivity which is part of the scientific
tradition of sociology Everyone in a given society has a
definition of “the family” as part of her/his commonsense
knowledge. But when these definitions are examined closely,
it becomes obvious that the family, as commonly understood,
is actually a very vague concept although most people may
not be consciously aware of many of the ambiguities.
Commonsense thinking ignores the fact that there is not one
type of ideal family or actual family, but a variety of
coexisting types that can be documented both historically
and cross-culturally. The course attempts to survey this
variety of family structures. The course will take a
non-judgmental perspective towards the whole spectrum of the
new politics of the family, examining topics that range from
relatively “traditional” couples to those who reject
state-supported affectional relationship, from the “new
celibacy” to “sexual liberation,” from “child-free couples”
to “single parents,” from the “pro-family” new right to
“socialist feminism,” and from the “normalization of
divorce” to the family as a “little utopia.
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Current Projects
- The value of anecdotal evidence in sociology
- Critical discourse analysis of news stories
on Chinese-Americans
- Discourses of self and other in
ethnic-minority media
- Reformulating the concept of
stereotype
- Sociological theories of human-object
interaction
- Self-presentation through vernacular
interior decoration
- The career of the semiotician and novelist
Paul Bouissac
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Journalism and Non-Academic Writings
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